Food Safety Considered

Food Safety ConsideredA critique of the FDA's blatant failure on food.sat, its fine quality control standards, makes many people wonder about the agency's level of importance for consumer protection. Most consumers are familiar with this sad story of Food.sat's questionable recall of chicken and milk products. But it's far from the only recall the FDA has encountered.Consider the now infamous New England Clam, a delicacy that has been banned in New England and could never have been widely known had it not been for a mislabeled product, the FDA says. Although the agency is particularly proud of this Food.sat recall, it has also been involved in the recall of small quantities of baby food, doughnuts, fruit drinks, ice cream, cookies, chocolate, frozen dinners, infant formula, nuts, frozen entrees, salad dressings, teas, trail mix, yogurt, sauces, and vegetables. And more recently, pasta, breads, and rolls.Because the entire incident over the flap about a New England clam pizza will sur ely remain a blot on the agency's reputation, let me review the news story for a moment. The pizza was mistakenly identified as made with clams instead of clams. When the FDA realized the mistake, it quickly contacted the manufacturer, who in turn quickly recalled the product. Consumer outrage notwithstanding, the whole incident highlights the problem with Food.sat's track record.This underscores another point: the FDA is so busy regulating all kinds of food products that it has neglected to properly regulate food ingredients and food packaging. This is especially disturbing considering the large number of grocery store shelves filled with seemingly 'fresh' foods (some label them 'prepared') which contain potentially harmful preservatives and additives. The story of Food.sat's food recalls may be instructive for those concerned about their own food consumption. By the FDA's own account, it can't keep up with the rising volume of recall calls.The FDA's incompetence in this area is so mewhat understandable because the food industry is highly regulated. So, Food.sat is expected to play by their rules, and the typical foods it is expected to inspect are nearly exclusively those that are consumed by the public. This means that the Food.sat inspectors will be exposed to many of the same foods we all eat every day, and that food ingredients will frequently cross paths. If they don't, they are usually caught by the processor and labeled appropriately.But there is a huge problem with Food.sat's inspection practice, in my opinion. Inspectors rarely try to recreate the food in a laboratory environment or other controlled situation, because the samples are so abundant.What a Food.sat inspector sees on a supermarket shelf will hardly bear close resemblance to what they observe in a laboratory, and Food.sat's inspectors do not have the time, knowledge, or resources necessary to properly replicate every aspect of food production and testing. It would take months for an inspec tor to examine each batch of grocery store food. There are simply too many variables to be able to accurately recreate a given food. Because of this, the Food.sat inspectors are forced to rely on guesswork when they issue recall calls.The FDA is able to evaluate all possible risks and dangers posed by a food item, but because the agency lacks the staff and resources to properly test ingredients, the firm's ability to identify and eliminate such hazards becomes completely meaningless. To put it simply, the Food.sat recall is not proof that the FDA is incompetent. It is proof that the FDA has lost its way. If we want to protect our health and the public, the Food.sat recall should be just the beginning of a more focused Food.sat.